What I read in August: Digest Version, part 1 of 2

I find myself shocked and appalled by the fact that no one has made an FMA AMV of the Decemberists "The Shankill Butchers."  Seriously, internet?  You disappoint me.

b 20th Century Boys 21: All the threads converging slowly, deliberately, perfect endings each time (not quite cliffhanger but definitely making you want to read to find out what happens next).

b Alice in the Country of Hearts omnibus 1-3 of 3: It's true that those who didn't read to the end of this series missed out on the part that pulled many of the foreshadowing threads throughout together finally.  Dwaaaawwwww.  Finding out what you do at the end sheds a new light on things and somewhat redeems what would otherwise have been a totally frilly, silly bit of reverse-harem comedy fluff.

b Book Girl and the Wayfarer's Lamentation: I was quite surprised that this plot thread unravelled here.  There are still quite a few books left; I thought this was the main conflict.  I guess I was wrong.  I hope the real main conflict feels organic and not tacked on because I really like these books and all their broken people and literary nerdiness.

b Dawn of the Arcana 5: Things get even more muddy in this volume, as everyone figures out the dastardly plot and then tries to stop another slaughter from happening.  And Cain?  Your life story has been unpleasant, but you're not helping yourself by lending yourself to more evil, as if that will erase the wrong done to you.

b Gimmick! 9: And the finale!  More passionate declarations, more makeup art madness, and some really touching reunions.  Villains learn their lessons, mentors return from their globetrotting and make me laugh with their weird reasons for going on with special effects.  Good stuff!

"Why are you so mad?  It's our job to make people believe things that aren't true! To make them believe lies."
"But with that power comes responsibility, Kazuki.  We can never use it to deceive people."
"But millions of people believed my lie!  I was just using the power of SFX that you taught me.!"
"You still don't get it!  SFX should only be used for good!"

Do you really think your friend's death was your fault?  We just do our jobs.  What people do after seeing those images is entirely on them.  Nobody made your friend enlist.  If people are deceived by images, then they're fools.  BE proud of your abilities, Kohei Nagase!  The SFX you created fooled everyone.  You defeated reality!"
"That's not why I got into this business."

"The process of creation is basically communicating something to others."

b Kaze Hikaru 20: As with every new volume, I was totally lost at the beginning, but it very quickly didn't matter at all because this series is so fantastically awesome.  There are consequences for Kamiya's dressing up as a girl briefly a little bit ago, and in this volume, she's undercover in a dangerous way.  No one really explains it to Hijikata, and things are pretty tense until the end, which wraps up kind of hilariously . . .  I never thought I would be grateful for having watched the Shura no Toki MANime for this reason: because it made me look up Ryoma Sakamoto, I could really enjoy his bits in this shojo manga of awesome.  Thanks, MANime.

b Legal Drug 1-3: In honor of CLAMP re-starting this series, I read it again.  I see the seeds of xxxHolic here in the move towards more solid black and white and the vignettes and mysteries and mysterious store owner and awkward relationship between the two protagonists.  They better fill in the missing pieces of background in this one, is all I can say.  Reading it again just made me more curious . . .  One of my favorite quotes about this series came from my co-worker at the bookstore who took one look at the marijauan leaf logo and said, "I don't think this is actually a legal drug."

What I watched in March: Digest Version

b Black Butler:  Dog training with Sebastian.  Holy cow.  I do love the sometimes vicious interplay between Ciel and Sebastian.  "I'm far past being afraid of shattering."  Oh, Ciel.  When he shows he's an adult by teaming up with Grelle to save Lizzie instead of seeking immediate revenge for Madame Red, it kind of breaks my heart.  And "I don't want time to heal my wounds."  So therapy is not an option, then, and living is not the best revenge as far as Ciel is concerned. 

b Cyborg 009: I really like this show; it's just good, angsty, superpowered fun.  I have now had two chances to experience this work, and I have been prevented from seeing it through to completion both times, once by TV cancellation and the second time by DVD release cancellation.  (And the manga got cancelled early, too, in case you wondered.)  But, but, fun things!  Ooo, new character designs!  I hope this movie is good, but trying to cram all that and all those characters into a movie while doing them all justice without having time for character development will be tricky.

b Kaze No Stigma: Really?  Was there really a need for that many panty shots all the time?  The voice acting, especially of the main characters, tries its best to make up for the panty shots, and it's pretty darn good, but sometimes they don't have much to work with.  A fun, adrenalin-soaked tsundere good time.  The extras were kind of fun, too, in a ridiculous way.

b Maison Ikkoku box 4: Oh, romantic comedy; sometimes I just want to slap you.  However, the frustration of people being obnoxious and miscommunicating constantly is finite in this show, so I find it bearable.  Or I would if I could ever get ahold of a cheap copy of the last set.  (Don't worry; I've read it, and I saw the whole thing on Netflix, so I'm not in agony about how it ends.)

b Salaryman Kintaro 5 of 5: No matter how many times I watch this, it's still just totally ridiculous.  And incomprehensible.  Seriously, what's with the ending?  Sigh.  Did I mention how much I love this testosterone-laden, salaryMANtastic MANime-fest?  It makes me laugh so hard.

What I watched in December: Digest Version

o Neo Angelique Abyss Season 1: More on this later . . .  After the trauma fades more.

b Azumanga Daioh: You know, this one is still just dumb and hilarious after all these years.  Creepy teacher is still super creepy.  Yukari is still obnoxious.  And then at the end, it's still kind of tear-jerking. 

b Big Windup: There are some people that just invite being picked on.  It's not like there's one type or anything, but, I dunno.  This show made me think about that.  I used to be friends with a lot of these people.  There's one right now in the anime club I go to. and it's painful, but at least in the anime club, where many of the members are used to being outsiders and nerds and bullied, no one actually bullies him.  It's rather surprising.  Anyway, one character in this show had a great line when he and other boys were talking about this topic.  He said he was glad he hadn't met the kid until high school because if they'd met when he was less mature, he wouldn't have been able to stop himself from picking on the kid.  It's just hard to watch this poor little pitcher bundle of nerves and psychoses, but it's wonderful to watch the other kids on the team and how they grow and change over the course of this season.  There are others, but this one bombed so bad for Funimation, I will never see them.  Sports manga never does well here, either, so unless Digital Manga randomly takes a stab at it, I doubt I'll ever get to read and find out what happens in the next game and the rest of the tournament.  Which makes me sad.

b Durarara: This was a weird, wild, wonky ride full of ridiculousness, hilarity, and really awful tragedy.  Yeah, it somehow mostly worked.  Novels, please?

b Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit:  You know, this series is amazing every time I watch it.  It's so different from anything out there, but it's just breathtaking.  I wish more of the novels could be published here, too.

b Shura no Toki 5: "I'm a man of my word.  I always keep my promises.  Except one."  -Izumi Mutsu (Ohhhh!  So sad!) I know I already wrote about this one, but I finally finished it up, and last arc was pretty sad at times.  Don't worry, in the end, well, manly things happen, so don't worry.

b Spice and Wolf: This was a pretty fun series.  It's true that occasionally it would lapse into a brief bit of economics 101, but it's pretty good fun, and you can find yourself wrapped up in the success and failure of the business ventures.  And the ongoing mystery plot and road trip don't hurt.  I hope they publish the novels all the way through, too.

b Yukikaze: Just beautiful on the big screen in my parents' basement.  Super sad and a bit confusing since it did funny things with the plots from the novels and played fast and loose with lots of specific details from the books that maybe should have been left alone.  I was right that a series of stories that mostly take place in people's heads would be difficult to translate to screen, but the animation was lovely, and the voice acting was great in Japanese.